The BCS Screwjob

Everyone wants to find fault with the way the BCS shook out this year. However, no team this year would make the BCS Top 5 Screwjob List, which I have just created as it’s much better than doing any real work. Anyway, on with the list.

5) Kansas State – 1998 season. K State is the only team on this list that didn’t get screwed out of a National Championship shot, but makes the list because they had a rule named after them. K State was ranked third in the final BCS poll prior to the bowl games, but got regulated to the Alamo Bowl, while Ohio State (4) and Florida (8) got BCS Bowl bids. They instituted the “Kansas State rule” stating that teams ranked third and fourth in the BCS will get automatic bids to BCS bowls. Amazingly, something about the BCS started to make sense.

4) Auburn – 2004 season. Auburn came into the season undervalued in the polls because they had been overvalued the year before. What happened? Auburn ran the table. Unfortunately, so did USC and Oklahoma, who had been ranked ahead of Auburn all year long. Auburn’s strength of schedule did not come into play because that stat had been diminished in the BCS prior to the season. Auburn went on to beat Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl while USC dominated an overwhelmed Oklahoma team.

The next 3 are really tough, considering they were all pretty egregious.

3) USC – 2003 season. At the end of the 2003 season, USC (Pac-10 champs) had one loss, but was ranked number 1 in the AP and Coaches Poll. However, the computers deemed that USC has a weak schedule. LSU (SEC champs) also had one loss and was ranked number two in both polls and had a stronger computer ranking than USC. Oklahoma, previously ranked number 1, had lost their only game in the Big 12 Championship Game, dropping them to third in both polls, yet still number 1 in the BCS. Thanks to this genius, LSU played a team that didn’t even win their conference in the National Championship Game. You think they would have made a rule after the first time this happened (we’ll get to that later). So, LSU went on to beat Oklahoma and USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. So, the AP kept USC at number 1 and the BCS gave LSU its number 1 ranking. So we get a split National Championship, something the BCS was created to avoid. Once again, Big 12 bias ruins college football (which is the theme in the next screwjob) as anyone with a brain would have had USC play LSU. Interesting footnote on this, 3 coaches actually violated their contractual obligations by voting USC number 1 in the Coaches Poll.

2) Oregon – 2001 season. At the end of the 2001 season, Oregon finished as Pac 10 champs with only 1 loss and was ranked second to undefeated Miami. Nebraska was ranked fourth in both polls with one loss, that being the final game of the season to two loss Colorado by 26 points. With that win, Colorado, not Nebraska, won the Big 12 North Division and went on to play and win the Big 12 Championship Game. Despite all this, Nebraska jumped ahead of both Oregon and Colorado to the number 2 spot in BCS polls. So, a team that didn’t even win its division jumps ahead of 2 conference winners to play in the National Championship. To add a little extra insult to Oregon, Nebraska beat out Colorado (with 2 losses) for the number 2 spot (by 0.05 points), and Oregon finished fourth. But have no fear, Miami went on to beat Nebraska for the National Title (no one was beating Miami that year) and Oregon went on to destroy Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl in a “how do you like me now!” statement game.

1) Miami and Washington – 2000 season. One of these teams was screwed, I’m not sure which. The case I’ll make for Miami is the same as for Washington. Oklahoma was undefeated and number 1, but there were 3 one loss teams with their claim to play Oklahoma. You had one loss Florida State, which actually ended up playing Oklahoma. The problem with FSU was that they lost to Miami (who was ranked number 2 in both polls at the end of the year) earlier in the year. The problem with Miami was that they lost to one loss Washington, the Pac 10 champs. In my mind, Miami got screwed, but Washington had their claim too. Anyway, both Miami and Washington won their bowl games, and Oklahoma beat FSU. Thanks to this debacle, we got the “Miami rule” which added a “quality win” bonus for beating a top 10 team.